I bought two Plextor writing optical drives, one for CDs and one for DVDs, the Plextor 708A SCSI drive. It came with Nero and it works beautifully. The Nero burning software actually outperforms the burning engine in my Sony DVD Architect authoring software.
Reading the Sony Media forums, it becomes apparent one of the smartest things you can do is download the latest firmware upgrade for your CD/DVD burner...this can solve some intractable problems.
I know it's corny, but since they're selecting a new Pope, we now have the situation where "Rome Fiddles whilst Nero burns!"